Friday, February 15, 2013

Images and Personifications of Wolves from the Middle Ages

Detail of a miniature of a wolf, sneaking up on sheep from downwind; from a bestiary, England, c. 1200-c. 1210, Royal MS 12 C. xix, f. 19r

A she-wolf from mythology: detail of a
miniature of (foreground) two men digging a grave for the Rhea Silvia,
the princess and Vestal Virgin sentenced to death for bearing Romulus
and Remus, the twin sons of the god Mars, who are shown behind with the
she-wolf (lupa) that raised them after their usurping great-uncle cast them out to die; from a French translation of Giovanni Boccacio, De claribus mulieribus, France (Rouen), c. 1440, Royal MS 16 G. v, f. 55r

Miniature of the personification of
Gluttony, riding on the back of a wolf; from the Dunois Hours, France
(Paris), c. 1440-c. 1450 (after 1436), Yates Thompson MS 3, f. 168v

The film offers an abbreviated history of the relationship between wolves and people—told from the wolf’s perspective—from a time when they coexisted to an era in which people began to fear and exterminate the wolves.

The return of wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains has been called one of America’s greatest conservation stories. But wolves are facing new attacks by members of Congress who are gunning to remove Endangered Species Act protections before the species has recovered.

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Inescapably, the realization was being borne in upon my preconditioned mind that the centuries-old and universally accepted human concept of wolf character was a palpable lie... From this hour onward, I would go open-minded into the lupine world and learn to see and know the wolves, not for what they were supposed to be, but for what they actually were.

-Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf

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“If you look into the eyes of a wild wolf, there is something there more powerful than many humans can accept.” – Suzanne Stone